Week 3, Day 2

"And today we're going to see Cheapside," my aunt says.

I grin at Sarah and we quote together, "I hear she has an uncle, who lives in Cheapside. Inwardly, I'm so excited to be in England and especially so close to where Jane Austin set all of her novels. We're in Bath - my entire family and Grandparents and an Aunt and Uncle that live there and the Jinkins family.

We go for a walk, listening to my aunt talk about the country until we pass a old graveyard. I point. "Is there anyone famous in there?"

"I'm not sure. I've never been in there," my aunt says.

I grin and turn into the gate, "If I lived right down the street, I'd probably know where everyone was."

And somehow - I do. Not everyone, but it's like as soon as I read the name or date on a stone, I know who the person was and what they did for a living. There are modern dates. A few from WWII. And one that I squint at. "Does that say 1240????"

"No." Ryan says. "It's 1840."

"Oh," I pass the tombstone up, "I didn't see it that well, I guess."

But something's not right in this place. When I look at the words, they're fuzzy before they clear up. 1840 is just a few years after Texas won its independence but I don't know what was going on in England.

"Oh, look, Jami," I point. "There's some pictures."

Actually there's an area with a few stones that have portraits on them and I steer that way to see. A man's portrait lays on top of a trunk and I breifly wonder what's inside before I'm studying his picture as I walk past.

He was a bankrobber type whose dressed like a gentleman with a large tophat and a white ruffle at his neck. He's smiling. But as I walk by, eyes following him - his eyes begin to follow me. The smile fades until he is sending the absolute blackest stare I've ever seen.

That - is creepy. And only Jami who's on the other side of me, looking the other way keeps me from freaking out. Still, I quicken my steps and reach for her hand. We can't go back out toward the gate without passing him again, so I tug her further into the yard to make a long circle back around.

My aunt's golden retriever bounds after us, grabbing the edge to my dress in it's teeth to tug me back toward the gate. Then it jumps onto my back, pinning me to the ground. Now I do panic in earnest. When I get the animal off me I call that I thought we ought to head back to the house.

We do and find my uncle preparing his sermon for the next day. My heart is racing so I walk around the house, where my Grandmother says she wants to take the stray dog home to replace her old one. Only I don't remember her having a dog or even liking them.

Then I return to the livingroom where Jami is saying, "But it was moving! I saw it! The man in the picture looked at me!"

"He couldn't have looked at you. That sort of thing doesn't happen. Ghosts aren't real," says my uncle.

I swallow, heart sinking. "Actually - I saw it too. It was moving. He was looking. I just - didn't say anything because I didn't think Jami saw."

My uncle looks disturbed.

"I've heard other people say they've seen things there," my aunt says.

I leave the room. I don't want to know. Then I talk to the pretty English girl that's been picked up by my grandparents who want to take her home with them.

"You'll like America," I say, sitting on the bed.

"Actually, I'm not going." Her eyes sparkle. "I got a job as a teacher. I'm going to start this Fall."

"Oh, you'll like that," I say.

My phone buzzes from it's place on the table. The girl is sitting between me and it so I point. "Oh, can you hand me that. It's Val. She's my friend from America."

"Oh no. It was my phone." The girl - who's dressed like a maid from the 1800's pulls out her phone to look through it. I'm pretty sure that particular buzzing is what mine does but getting to it would require climbing over the girl's lap.

"Oh no it's not," she says. "No one called."

"It's mine."

She hands me my phone and I flip it open.

I finished that book u told me I'd like. It was long and hard to read but I did like it.

Oh. That book. The one about the maid going to work for two brothers in the English countryside. It had been good till it got to the part about the man in the portraite. Then I stopped reading it. But I didn't remember telling her she'd like it. Actually. I haven't talked to this particular friend in years. She's from the fanfiction site.

Oh. Yeah, that one got weird. Sorry.

It did get weird. She ended up courting the brother and he was only like fourteen. I liked it before that part.

My phone buzzes again and this time I wake up. Finding myself in a bed in America and it IS Val who's doing the buzzing.

I check the phone for real.

Awake?

Or stuck in sleep....?

I type. I am awake... Sorta.

I sway. The room is dark. Last thing I knew I was trying to sleep over the laughter of family and friends watching "Nomeo and Juliette" in the other room. Then - it's morning before I even know I fell asleep. And dang it, I'm not in England anymore. Which means there's no creepy ghost guy either. I feel slightly better.

I was very sleepy because I don't remember putting on my shoes at all. But when I get outside, I tell Val my dream, swearing that I haven't been watching or reading or thinking anything ghost related. I'm walking down the road when a movement catches my eye and a skunk crosses the road ahead of me.

I gasp. "Oh there's a skunk!"

I watch the critter who's pretty docile and used to people, but I still give it the right away. I'm sleepy and jumpy and not making a lot of sense but I chose the non-skunky road to continue my walk on. I've switched subjects before I gasp. "THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!"

How many are there? And now there's one both sides of me.

"They're - coming up from the river, right by the haunted house," I say.

The haunted house is named by my cousin because of the long stairs going to a gothic type door and the rounded look of the house. It was built just before the last flood. I've been inside. It's set up weird with stairs leading to tiny rooms that are hardly level with each other, random lofts in the room and something that looks like a stage for kids.

It's a weird house. What's stranger is that people actually buy it when they hardly buy any homes down here in the flood zone. But they only stay a few months and then it's back on the market.

So it's known as the haunted house and "OH MY GOSH THERE'S A LIGHT ON!"

A tiny room in the top corner of the side wall lights like a beacon into the dusky morning when most other houses are still dark.

So my words come out more like, "There's a skunk! They're coming from the river by the haunted house and OH MY GOSH, THERE'S A LIGHT ON!"

I start sucking in breathes and then start laughing. "I don't know what's wrong with me today..."

"I don't either," Val says, giggling. "You're not usually the one to freak out."

But I'm not really awake either and it takes will to go another round so I can make two miles. Then I cook breakfast, eating by myself and head into my room to read my Bible. Back to Job. Almost to the part where God starts speaking and things get good. And three chapters in, my eyes are droooooping...

I'm falling asleep. Must stay awake. I have awesome scenes to write. I get up. Must stay - whoa, dizzy....

I turn out my light and crash in the bed.

Must stay awake... I'm going to regret this. I'll probably be just as tired when I wake up as...

Images of Tehveor and what I'm supposed to be writing float through my head as my thoughts begin taking on lives of their...

MUST STAY AWAKE!
Nah. I'm not going to get anything done.

I begin feeling like Karl and I wonder if he's falling asleep on the couch leaving poor Thacia all....

MUST STAY....

Erik comes into my brain and I realize all of these charecters are the ones who are taking it easy for the moment - most recovering from some illness or waiting for life-saving treatment or...

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

My phone is going off again. I roll over. It's been about 15 minutes since I first turned out the light. It's Val again asking if I can email something later.

May as well do it now and try to wake up so I can get stuff done.

Val. You're my salvation.

So I email her. Then answer with the next piece of Rome where Malcomb and Felix have just found their younger brother and the slave he's trying to berid of.

Then write for the James family all sitting around the table - except for Karl who's on the couch.

And then I think if I don't write my blog now, I'm going to forget it since I hardly remember much of this morning. Except skunks. And Buzzing cell phones.

And now...

I'm still sleepy.